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  • Heathrow power outage caused by moisture in electrical system

    Heathrow power outage caused by moisture in electrical system

    A fire at a nearby electrical substation that caused a power outage at Heathrow Airport was “most likely” caused by moisture entering an electrical component, a review has found.

    The National Energy System Operator (NESO) was ordered by the energy secretary to look in to the cause of the fire, which started late on 20 March at the North Hyde substation in west London, which supplies power to the airport.

    The fire led to Heathrow deciding to close the following day, leading to thousands of cancelled flights and stranded passengers.

    Neso said previously that the the power outage affected 66,919 domestic and commercial customers, including Heathrow Airport. Around 270,000 journeys were affected.

    The report said the fire “was most likely caused by moisture entering the bushing causing a short circuit. The electricity likely then “arced” (causing sparks) which combined with air and heat to ignite the oil, resulting in a fire.”

    Bushing is a mechanical device used to temper energy between two electrical parts.

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  • Khaled Sabsabi reinstated as Venice Biennale representative after independent review into dumping | Culture

    Khaled Sabsabi reinstated as Venice Biennale representative after independent review into dumping | Culture

    Creative Australia has reinstated artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s artistic team for the 2026 Venice Biennale, following an independent external review of the decision.

    The pair had been dumped from the prestigious art exhibition earlier this year after Creative Australia’s board took the unprecedented decision to revoke their appointment.

    “Today, we were officially informed by Creative Australia that we have been recommissioned as the Artistic Team for the Australia Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale,” the team said in a statement.

    “We accept this invitation and welcome the opportunity to represent our country on this prestigious international stage.”

    Just days after their selection was made public in February and following negative media and political commentary about two of Sabsabi’s historical artworks dating back nearly 20 years, Creative Australia’s board rescinded their contract, saying it wanted to avoid a “divisive debate”.

    The artistic duo said the decision has renewed their confidence in Creative Australia and “in the integrity of its selection process”.

    “It offers a sense of resolution and allows us to move forward with optimism and hope after a period of significant personal and collective hardship,” their statement said.

    “We acknowledge that this challenging journey has impacted not only us, but also our families, friends, the staff at Creative Australia, and many others across the broader artistic community here and abroad.

    “We would not have reached this point without the unwavering support of the Australian and international creative community.”

    More details to follow

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  • Antarctica’s shrinking sea ice threatens wildlife, climate stability: study-Xinhua

    SYDNEY, July 2 (Xinhua) — Antarctic summer sea ice is retreating at record speeds, unleashing a chain reaction of environmental and social consequences that Australian experts say could profoundly alter the global climate and ecosystems, new research has revealed.

    Record lows in sea-ice extent are exposing coastlines, warming oceans, and disrupting delicate ecosystems, while also fueling public anxiety about climate change, according to the study led by the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP) at the University of Tasmania.

    The research, synthesizing impacts across ocean systems, ecosystems, and human societies, reveals that extreme sea-ice lows, like those observed in recent years, trigger three interconnected crises, said an AAPP release on Tuesday.

    As sea ice vanishes, Antarctica’s coastline loses its protective barrier, leading to increased wave damage, faster ice-shelf weakening, and more iceberg calving, with six extra icebergs per 100,000 km² lost, heightening sea-level rise risks, according to the study’s lead author Edward Doddridge from the AAPP.

    As sea ice disappears, dark open waters absorb more solar heat, and algae blooms in these areas further trap warmth, driving a persistent, self-reinforcing cycle of ocean warming, said the study published in PNAS Nexus, an extension of the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for high-impact, emerging research.

    Loss of sea ice disrupts breeding for emperor penguins and seals, deprives krill of vital habitat, and threatens to destabilize the entire Southern Ocean food web, the researchers said.

    The study also links increased media coverage of Antarctic ice loss to rising climate anxiety and mental health concerns, with public interest peaking during 2023’s record sea-ice lows. ■

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  • Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories – Announcements

    Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories – Announcements

    Edited by Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau and Peter Szendy

    Published by Spector Books

    The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale is an invitation to close our eyes and actively listen. The installation hosted in the pavilion, Sonic Investigations, operates a radical shift away from the visual: it offers a cartography of various environments exclusively through sound. The volume, conceived as a companion to the sound installation in Venice, has a broad ambition: it argues for a counter-project to the hegemony of images.

    Since the climate crisis can also be understood as a crisis of sensory perception and representation, it is all the more urgent to find new ways of approaching the ongoing environmental transformations. The act of listening allows for different forays into both anthropic and natural ecosystems. It directs our attention toward the vocality of other-than-human agencies; it empowers them with a voice of their own.

    Field recording can thus be the prelude to another mapping of the world, attuning our ears to its various fault lines, to its tensions. And sounding becomes a powerful investigative tool, a way of auscultating the infrastructures of the present as well as the times to come. The concept of ecotone, a transitional space between two ecosystems, is a guiding thread for the authors of this volume as they listen to boundaries between territories, to urban patterns, to natural balances and imbalances, or to political fractures.

    The book includes contributions by Peter Szendy, Shannon Mattern, Tim Ingold, Soline Nivet and Ariane Wilson, David George Haskell, Ludwig Berger, Philip Samartzis and Madelynne Cornish (Bogong Centre for Sound Culture), Nadine Schütz, Laure Brayer (AAU-CRESSON), Julia Grillmayr, Christina Gruber and Sophia Rut (Lobau Listening Comprehensions), Yuri Tuma (Institute for Postnatural Studies), Emma McCormick Goodhart, as well as a fiction piece by Xabi Molia and poems by Laura Vazquez and Cole Swensen. The graphic identity is designed by Pierre Vanni.

     

    Public events of Sonic Investigations, Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
    The activations extend the reflection on embodied practices and sensorial approaches to space through sound, offering a unique exploration of the performer’s and the audience’s body within soundscapes. The events will create a dialogue between the space of the pavilion and the infrastructural apparatus of the Venetian lagoon, together with local Italian sound artists and researchers.

    October 7–10, 2025
    Ecotongues (Residency and Performance inside the pavilion): Gaia Ginevra Giorgi (author, sound artist and performer)
    Ecotongues explores mediumship as the ability to inhabit the threshold between the visible and the invisible, the audible and the inaudible, as a performative practice of interspecific intimacy between human and more-than-human entities.

    October 25–26, 2025
    Attunement Exercises: Nicola Di Croce (researcher and sound artist)
    The two public exercises address the idea of ‘attunement’ as the possibility of entering ‘into resonance with’ the non-human, through an investigation of the sound sources of the Venice lagoon taking particularly into account the infrastructure systems and their relation to wilder ecosystems.

     

    19th International Venice Architecture Biennale, Luxembourg Pavilion, Arsenale, Sale d’Armi, 1st floor / May 10–November 23, 2025.
    Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau with Ludwig Berger, Peter Szendy: Sonic Investigations

    Commissioners appointed by the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture: Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg, LUCA—Luxembourg Center for Architecture / Curators: Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau / Exhibitors: Valentin Bansac, Ludwig Berger, Anthea Caddy, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau, Peter Szendy / Visual identity: Pierre Vanni.

    Press contact: Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg
    Emilie Gouleme, emilie.gouleme [​at​] kulturlx.lu,  T +352 621 680 028

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  • Can Blocking AMH Reverse PCOS? New Study Says Yes

    Can Blocking AMH Reverse PCOS? New Study Says Yes

    Researchers from the French National Institute of Health & Medical Research (Inserm), University of Lille in Lille, France, and the university’s teaching hospital CHU de Lille have identified a promising new therapeutic strategy for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). In preclinical models, the use of antibodies that block the activity of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) helped prevent the onset of PCOS-like symptoms — and even reversed them in adults who were already affected. Paolo Giacobini, PhD, neuroendocrinologist and group leader at Inserm’s Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Research Center (Centre de recherche Lille Neuroscience et Cognition), shared the findings with Medscape’s French edition.

    Reduced Quality of Life

    PCOS is one of the most common causes of infertility among women of reproductive age, affecting approximately 1 in 10 women — or more than two million individuals in France alone. Currently, treatment options are limited to symptom management.

    “This condition has a significant impact on women’s quality of life,” said Giacobini. “It presents with a broad spectrum of symptoms that vary between patients, including polycystic ovaries, elevated androgen levels leading to menstrual irregularities, acne, hair loss, excessive body hair, high levels of AMH, and, in some cases, metabolic syndrome. At least half of women with PCOS have associated comorbidities such as overweight or obesity, elevated insulin levels that increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, or cardiovascular disease.”

    A Multifactorial Condition

    Diagnosis of PCOS is typically based on the presence of at least two of the following three criteria: irregular menstrual cycles, clinical or biochemical signs of hyperandrogenism, and polycystic ovarian morphology as observed via ultrasound.

    The exact cause of PCOS remains unclear. “We’ve done extensive laboratory research using preclinical models to better understand the heritability of the syndrome,” Giacobini said. “Genetics are a factor, but they do not fully explain the high prevalence. We’ve also identified epigenetic changes and environmental influences, such as hormonal exposures during fetal development or after birth. It is highly likely that PCOS has a multifactorial origin.”

    In a recent study, Giacobini’s team focused on the role of AMH. In PCOS, the ovaries produce excess AMH, which impairs the maturation of follicles and contributes to androgen overproduction. “In previous preclinical studies, we found that prenatal exposure to AMH could induce PCOS-like symptoms in offspring, and these symptoms were transmitted across generations,” Giacobini explained. “We then examined critical periods of vulnerability in humans and observed that children of women with PCOS — both daughters and sons — had elevated AMH levels, even before puberty. We also found that mice exhibited high AMH levels during ‘mini-puberty,’ a transient hormonal phase in early infancy.”

    Blocking AMH Receptors

    The research team next investigated whether blocking AMH could help prevent PCOS. To do this, they developed a novel antibody, Ha13, designed to block AMH receptors located both in the ovaries and on gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-producing neurons, which regulate reproductive function.

    “By administering this antibody to young mice during the mini-puberty phase, we were able to prevent the development of PCOS in adulthood,” said Giacobini. “And when we treated adult mice already exhibiting PCOS symptoms, we reversed all reproductive abnormalities — normalizing menstrual cycles, ovulation, and androgen levels.”

    Giacobini views this study as “a gateway to further research on the pharmacokinetics of this antibody, which could eventually pave the way for human trials.” Although the molecule has been patented, several steps remain before it can be considered for clinical use. “The effects in animals are very promising, but we still need to evaluate long-term outcomes and establish optimal dosing,” he emphasized.

    An Advanced Alternative

    Another therapeutic avenue targeting the GnRH receptor is already further along in development. “We published our preclinical research on GnRH antagonists in 2018, and, thanks to European funding, we were able to initiate clinical trials. The pilot-phase results have been encouraging,” Giacobini said.

    “One advantage is that this molecule is already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for other indications. We’re already familiar with its pharmacological profile and side effects, which significantly accelerates development,” he concluded.

    This story was translated from Medscape’s French edition.

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  • Aamir Khan’s ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ crosses ₹130cr in 12 days

    Aamir Khan’s ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ crosses ₹130cr in 12 days

    ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ box office collection

    What’s the story

    Aamir Khan’s latest film, Sitaare Zameen Par, has crossed the ₹130 crore mark at the box office within two weeks of its release.
    The movie raked in around ₹4 crore on its second Tuesday (Day 12), taking the total collection to a solid ₹130.4 crore, reported Sacnilk.
    The film started its box office journey with good numbers and has maintained steady growth since then.

    Collection details

    Strong opening weekend followed by steady weekdays

    The film’s box office performance has been consistent, with earnings from all languages adding up.
    The movie opened on June 20 with ₹10.7 crore, followed by ₹20.2 crore on Saturday and ₹27.25 crore on Sunday.
    Even during weekdays, when collections usually dip, Sitaare Zameen Par managed to earn ₹8.5 crore each on Monday and Tuesday, and an additional ₹7.25 crore and ₹6.5 crore on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, in its first week alone (Hindi).

    Audience response

    Day 12 box office report and Khan’s statement

    On its 12th day, Sitaare Zameen Par witnessed an overall Hindi occupancy of 18.29%. Morning shows were comparatively low at 11.01%, but the interest picked up throughout the day with afternoon shows at 15.51%, evening shows at 20.79% and night shows at a healthy 25.84%.
    Khan has stressed the need to support diverse stories in cinema, saying, “Your support gives creators the freedom to tell diverse stories.”

    Film details

    ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ focuses on special needs athletes

    Sitaare Zameen Par is not just a sports film but a touching story of a basketball coach (Khan) training players with special needs.
    Genelia D’Souza also stars in the movie.
    The film introduces 10 new actors—Aroush Datta, Gopi Krishna Varma, Samvit Desai, Vedant Sharma, Ayush Bhansali, Ashish Pendse, Rishi Shahani, Rishabh Jain, Naman Mishra, and Simran Mangeshkar—who deliver heartwarming performances.

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  • Attitudes to aging, depression, and death anxiety among community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional correlational study | BMC Geriatrics

    Attitudes to aging, depression, and death anxiety among community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional correlational study | BMC Geriatrics

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  • Streaming growth slows and vinyl sales wobble in 2025 half-year UK market figures | Labels

    Streaming growth slows and vinyl sales wobble in 2025 half-year UK market figures | Labels

    The signs of a slowdown in growth have been evident in recent data on music consumption.

    Now the latest figures from the BPI confirm that the market momentum is slowing in the UK, where single digit growth rates for streaming now appear to be the new normal.

    According to the half-year market figures (based on Official Charts Company data), streaming consumption (SEA – streaming equivalent albums) was up 6.4% year-on-year in the first six months of 2025 to 93,632,987 units. The rate of growth has slowed during the course of the year with streaming consumption up 6.3% year-on-year in Q2, compared with 6.6% in Q1.

    It means the market will have to really motor in the rest of the year if it’s to even come close to matching the 11% year-on-year SEA growth in 2024. That was consistent with the 11% growth at the mid-way point of 2024.

    The overall music consumption results (Album Equivalent Sales – AES) across all formats for the half-year period showed an increase of 5.2%. Again, momentum was slowing in Q2 with a year-on-year increase of 4.3% compared to 6.2% in Q1.

    The AES overall market results for the first half of 2025 compares with a 9.8% increase for the first six months of 2024. The overall result for 2024 was almost identical at 9.7%.

    The BPI results for the UK coincide with a new report from industry analysts MIDiA, which found that the global music industry is “navigating a crucial period of recalibration”. It follows MIDiA’s warning on slowing growth earlier this year.

    MIDiA Research Global Music Forecasts 2025-2032 report stated that 2024 marked a year of “tempered growth”, with global recorded music revenues up by a modest 4.5%.

    Despite the near-term slowdown, the long-term outlook remains positive, according to the report. Retail revenues will reach $110.8 billion by 2032, surpassing the $100bn mark in 2030. Label trade revenues are expected to reach $58.2bn by 2032.

    As streaming user growth slows in the West, getting music consumers to spend more is going to be central to revenue growth

    Mark Mulligan

    “As streaming user growth slows in the West, getting music consumers to spend more is going to be central to revenue growth,” said Mark Mulligan, managing director and senior music analyst at MIDiA Research. “The question is whether consumers have an appetite for spending that matches the industry’s expectations, which is why continued diversification of income will be so important for long term market growth.” 

    PHYSICAL SALES

    The upbeat story about physical album sales in the past year has also taken a knock with these latest results.

    Physical sales are back into negative territory with the half-year numbers. Overall physical sales for the first six months are down 4.7% year-on-year to 7,664,596 units. While that’s not disastrous, the Q2 results for physical were dreadful – down 14.5% year-on-year – and that has dragged the half-year result down. Just three months ago, the physical sector was still buoyant with unit sales growth of 5.7%.

    The main reason for the decline was an eye-watering 22.4% slump in CD sales in Q2 (and the format is down 12.8% so far this year). Last summer there had been talk of a CD revival.

    Worryingly, vinyl sales are wobbling so far in 2025. While they were up 6% year-on-year to 3,235,244 units for the first six months, that compares to growth of 12.4% at this time last year (and 9.1% overall in 2024).

    The real concern is that vinyl sales were down in Q2 by 2.8% year-on-year (1,532,884), despite another successful edition of Record Store Day during the quarter.

    However, a one-off factor in that decline may be the absence of a Taylor Swift album in 2025. In Q2 of 2024, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department moved 180,236 physical copies (109,392 CDs, 66,388 vinyl albums, 4,457 cassettes) in week one alone. That 66,388 for TTPD’s vinyl sales in the opening week outstrips the 43,979 decline in Q2 2025 vinyl units compared to the prior year quarter.

    Nevertheless, it means that vinyl growth can no longer be taken for granted. 

    HALF-YEAR CHART RESULTS

    Alex Warren’s long-running No.1 Ordinary (Atlantic) was the biggest song of the first half of 2025 with consumption of 1,095,807 (Official Charts Company) – the only million-seller of the year so far. 

    Messy (Island) by Lola Young, which was No.1 overall in Q1, is in second place with 996,063 units – although it has total consumption of 1,174,749 when counting streaming for the track in 2024.

    Chrystal is the only other UK artist in the Top 10 (No.7, 680,923) with The Days (Chaos/Polydor), though RCA’s streaming sensation Myles Smith secures two entries in the year-to-date Top 20 with Nice To Meet You (No.19, 505,924) and Stargazing (No.20, 476,805). Stargazing has consumption to date of 1,489,504.

    In the albums chart, Sabrina Carpenter is on top overall for the half-year with Short ’N Sweet (Polydor) on 347,717 units in 2025 (720,673 to date). With a follow-up album, Man’s Best Friend, out in August there’s a strong possibility that Carpenter could have two of the biggest albums of 2025.

    Atlantic-signed Ed Sheeran is at No.2 with +–=÷× (Tour Collection) on 216,299 units so far this year. Sheeran, who has lined up new studio album Play for Q4, is one of five UK acts in the Top 10 (including Anglo-Americans Fleetwood Mac at No.4). 

    Sam Fender’s album People Watching (Polydor) is at No.3 overall (188,682 units), making it the biggest new release of 2025.

    He is joined by fellow UK acts Elton John with Diamonds (EMI/UMR) at No.8 (152,094 units this year) and Charli XCX’s Brat at No.9 (143,827 units this year).

    As well as Top 10 album appearances for the half-year by The Weeknd, Chappell Roan and SZA, Tate McRae is just outside at No.11 with So Close To What (139,279). Released via Sony Music’s Ministry Of Sound, the Q1 album release has actually gained momentum in Q2 where it finished at No.7 overall.

    Ahead of their comeback tour, Oasis also had a strong result in Q2 with a No.5 finish for Time Flies – 1994-2009 (Big Brother) on consumption of 74,001 in the quarter.

    PHOTO: Banquet

     

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  • Experimental medication sensitizes glioblastoma to treatment and blocks tumor spread

    Experimental medication sensitizes glioblastoma to treatment and blocks tumor spread

    A potential treatment for glioblastoma crafted by scientists at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute renders the deadly brain cancer newly sensitive to both radiation and chemotherapy drugs, and blocks the cancer’s ability to invade other tissue, a new study shows.

    The experimental medication, called MT-125, has received approval from the FDA to move to clinical trials as a possible first-line treatment for the most aggressive form of the brain cancer.

    Each year, 14,000 people in the United States receive the devastating news that they have glioblastoma. It is a cancer with an average survival of just 14 to 16 months. Standard treatments include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. But half of glioblastoma patients have a subtype that doesn’t respond to any approved cancer drugs, said Courtney Miller, Ph.D., a professor and academic affairs director at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.

    New options are urgently needed for those patients, said Miller, a member of the University of Florida Health Cancer Center.

    We know glioblastoma patients are awaiting a breakthrough, and we are moving as fast as humanly possible.”


    Courtney Miller, Ph.D., professor and academic affairs director at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

    Miller and her colleagues have long focused on molecular “motors” in the cell, nanoscale proteins called myosin. They look and act like machines, converting the cell’s energy into activity. Myosin motors enable cells to move, connect to other cells or contract and expand, Miller said. They are found throughout the body, including in heart, muscle and brain tissue.

    As a result, they have potential as therapeutic targets for a wide range of conditions, from cancer to substance use disorders, she said. However, there are no current medications that target them, or even selective drug-like tools that scientists can use to study them.

    Miller teamed up with her Wertheim UF Scripps colleagues to design a spectrum of potential drug candidates to block myosin motors in different contexts. Their work was published Tuesday, July 1, in the scientific journal Cell.

    Medicinal chemist Theodore Kamenecka, Ph.D., engineered the array of compounds, in consultation with structural biologist Patrick Griffin, Ph.D., The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute’s scientific director.

    To test the oncology potential of the myosin motor drugs, the team joined forces with Steven Rosenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., a scientist and neuro-oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Their out-of-the-box strategy appears to have opened a new route to attacking the hardest-to-treat glioblastoma. It works in four ways, the scientists reported in a companion paper published in Cell on June 10.

    “In animal studies, MT-125 makes malignant cells that were previously resistant to radiation responsive to it,” Miller said. “You also end up with multinucleated cells that cannot separate, and so they get marked for cell death.”

    MT-125 also blocks the cells’ ability to squeeze and change shape, which means they cannot proliferate and invade other parts of the brain, she said. And if MT-125 is combined with existing chemotherapy drugs, including sunitinib, the drug appears to deliver a very powerful response, Rosenfeld said. Sunitinib belongs to a class of chemotherapy drugs called kinase inhibitors.

    “We found in mice that combining MT-125 with a number of kinase inhibitors created long periods of a disease-free state that we haven’t seen in these mouse models before,” Rosenfeld said. 

    The scientists cautioned that many potential drugs that perform well in mice fail in human studies, due to differences in biology, so it will take time and study to learn if MT-125 is the hoped-for breakthrough, Rosenfeld said.

    Toxicity is another worry. But because the cancer cells are much more sensitive to MT-125 than healthy cells, and because the drug doesn’t stay in the body long, pulsed administration of the medication over a brief period seems to address the issue, Rosenfeld said.

    “I have been in the field for 35 years, and I always thought the solution to this problem would have to come from out-of-the-box thinking,” Rosenfeld said. “The tried-and-true methods don’t seem to work for this disease.”

    The compound, MT-125, has been licensed to a Jupiter, Florida-based biotechnology company started by the scientists, Myosin Therapeutics. They are working hard to begin first-in-human clinical trials within the year in glioblastoma patients, Miller said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given them the green light to proceed. They are awaiting release of a federal grant that has internal approval, she said. The National Institutes of Health has provided study funding, as well as the William Potter Glioblastoma Research Fund at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute, which was established by William Potter’s wife, Ronnie Potter, in his memory.

    Looking ahead, Miller says there is evidence that MT-125 could prove beneficial not only against the aggressive variant of glioblastoma, but for malignant gliomas and other cancers.

    In parallel, Miller and her collaborators are working to prepare a clinical trial for a related compound, MT-110, which appears to block drug cravings for people with methamphetamine use disorder. This compound is described in more detail in the July 1 Cell study.

    Source:

    Journal reference:

    Radnai, L., et al. (2025). Development of clinically viable non-muscle myosin II small molecule inhibitors. Cell. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.006.

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  • The hottest watch moments of May and June 2025: from Aaron Taylor-Johnson at Omega and Henry Cavill’s Longines appointment, to IWC Schaffhausen’s F1 sponsorship and new models from Vacheron Constantin

    The hottest watch moments of May and June 2025: from Aaron Taylor-Johnson at Omega and Henry Cavill’s Longines appointment, to IWC Schaffhausen’s F1 sponsorship and new models from Vacheron Constantin

    As spring turns to summer this year, we’re taking a look at some of the biggest horology highlights of May and June. Omega kicked things off by announcing Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the brand’s newest ambassador, sparking a flurry of rumours that the actor is next in line to play James Bond; Danish brand Urban Jürgensen marks a new chapter as it relaunches the legacy brand by bringing in renowned Finnish watchmaker Kari Voutilainen as co-CEO; while Longines is implementing a major swap at the senior management level. Then, a host of red carpet events – including the Met Gala, the French Open and global movie premieres – saw stars breaking out choice timepieces for their moment in the limelight.

    Here are our biggest watch moments of May and June.

    Aaron Taylor-Johnson bonds with Omega

    Omega’s new ambassador, actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Photo: Handout

    On May 22, Omega announced Aaron Taylor-Johnson as its newest ambassador. The British actor is known for playing Pietro Maximoff in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, winning a Golden Globe in 2017 for playing Ray Marcus in Nocturnal Animals, and more recently for his trifecta of roles in 2024: The Fall Guy, Nosferatu and Kraven The Hunter.

    Omega ambassador Aaron Taylor-Johnson with Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann. Photo: Handout
    Omega ambassador Aaron Taylor-Johnson with Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann. Photo: Handout
    Brands announce new ambassadors all the time, but the timing of Omega’s announcement in May raised eyebrows. It’s been six years since Omega released the Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition in 2019 to commemorate No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s last turn as the British superspy. The brand has been heavily associated with James Bond and British cinema since 1995 when Pierce Brosnan sported an Omega Seamaster Professional 300M in GoldenEye – six years after Timothy Dalton’s last turn as a Rolex-sporting 007 in 1989’s Licence to Kill.

    More recently, as Amazon takes the reins of the Bond franchise, an Omega Seamaster Chronograph appeared in the trailer for 007 First Light, a video game slated for release on the PlayStation 5 next year.

    Aaron Taylor-Johnson wears the Omega Speedmaster First Omega In Space to visit the brand’s headquarters as its new ambassador. Photo: Handout
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson wears the Omega Speedmaster First Omega In Space to visit the brand’s headquarters as its new ambassador. Photo: Handout

    The timing of Omega’s announcement of Taylor-Johnson as its new ambassador has led to speculation that the actor would be taking up the mantle of 007, especially after he visited the Omega headquarters sporting an Omega Seamaster First Omega in Space. He seems a perfect fit for the role, with a long CV in the action and romance genres. However, it’s all purely speculation at this stage.

    Urban Jürgensen roars back to life

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